Silent Season
by BrusselsSprout
Summary: After the diner, both Jemma and Fitz find themselves isolated, locked in solitude. Possible reunion one-shot post 5.04


"Talk to me, Fitz." he hears her voice. "You need to keep working on this. We are counting on you." He closes his eyes and feels her feathery touch against his shoulder and her soft hair brushing against his face. Tears gather in his eyes.

"I want to help, but there is nothing I can do from here. I don't understand it, I'm so sorry. I'm missing something, but I don't know what." _Stop being so pathetic_ , the Doctor growls in his head. _No wonder they left you behind if you are this useless. She wants nothing to do you with you. None of them do._

"You are the reason, I'm a monster." he whispers. _You need me. You'll never survive without me. You never would have survived the Framework without me._ \- he hisses back.

Fitz is grateful there are no mirrors – he doesn't have to see his demon staring back at him. "I belong here. We both do."

He sees Simmons roll her eyes. "Enough of the wallowing, Fitz. You need to figure out what happened and come get us."

"Don't you understand? I've been through all of it; there is no tech…" he says, his frustrated voice echoing through the empty prison cell… "that we know of…" she leans closer, "that can freeze time like that." he finishes. Then he has a new idea, "Maybe a blast… that sent everyone to a different dimension."

"You think? Only leaving you?" she looks at him sceptically.

"Alone…" he adds.

"You are not alone, Fitz." she whispers, holding his hand.

He looks at her and says "You are not here."

She doesn't flinch. "I am here…" she points to his chest, and "here" she adds breathing a soft kiss on his forehead. He closes his eyes, silent tears falling down his cheek.

* * *

Jemma stares at her reflection and cannot recognize herself - a china doll with gold paint. Jemma Simmons, PhD, PhD is reduced to an inanimate object, not able to hear, only to be showcased for the pleasure of a bloody blue alien.

She wants to scream, smash the mirror, smash an alien head – instead she just stands there docile, trying to calm the rage inside. Fit in, blend in is the smart play – would have been the smart play. She doesn't care much if she lives or dies – after all, she has little left to lose – but she wants to give the others a chance to find their way.

She tries to control the emotions, focusing on reciting atomic attributes in her head – _Gold, Aurum, atomic number 79, malleable, ductile… -_ the knowledge is there, they cannot take that away.

"You left me again. You've given up on me, Jemma." She hears his voice and tries to block it.

"I know you haven't given up, Fitz. But let's face it – this is the future and you are not here. The evidence points one way…" she argues with him. "Hope would be misplaced."

"You never used to give up this easy, without a fight." his voice echoes behind the buzzing.

"I have no more fight in me, Fitz. I have no one left to fight for." _Could these broken thoughts really belong to her?_

"We could fix it together." he replies.

"Maybe, but you are not here." she thinks angrily.

"Evidently, I am. Don't give up on me, Jemma." he says and she can see his sparkling blue eyes for a second. She shuts down immediately – she cannot keep thinking about Fitz and keep her composure at the same time.

Instead, she goes back to the atomic attributes. _Gold was produced through supernova nucleosynthesis, it dissolves in aqua regia…_

* * *

Fitz raises his hand, staring at the streak of light that peeps through the tiny window of his cells. He's disoriented – he lost count of the days at 89. The interrogations are the only things that break the mind-numbing routine.

He feels the ghost of Jemma's head nestled against his chest. "Fitz, you need to hurry. We need to figure it out soon." she tells him softly.

He lets out a frustrated sigh, "I told you, Jemma. I have no idea what happened. We've been through it – there was no blast, there was not enough time to erase my memories. It's as if somehow time was frozen."

"Maybe it was." she mumbles caressing gently his chest.

"Nonsense. Time cannot be frozen. It just is." he says. "It would have to be technology we don't understand yet. Maybe it has to do with the Darkhold." _I don't know anything about that_ – says the Doctor.

"Maybe." Jemma sounds unconvinced.

"Did you leave on purpose or were you abducted?" he asks.

"Do you think I would leave you behind on purpose?" she sounds annoyed.

"I hurt you. I hurt all of you. " he whispers. The Doctor stirs inside him - _I only did what needed to be done. You should have done the same. Protect the ones you love with any means necessary. If you are weak, no wonder they are torn apart from you._

"Fitz, I told you that I don't blame you. I did not leave you behind on purpose." Jemma says.

"So you were abducted then. But by whom? And for what purpose?" Fitz sits up suddenly.

"Exactly. Unknown." Says Jemma, stressing the last word.

" Unknown origin. An 0-8-4. Wait, you were taken by aliens?" he looks at her, confused.

"Is that so implausible?" she looks back from the far corner.

"Actually, it's the only thing that makes sense." he acknowledges.

* * *

Jemma is profoundly unhappy to see Daisy. Yet again, a teammate sacrifices herself to rescue poor, helpless, little Agent Simmons. She feels ashamed – Daisy would never let herself to be dressed in slave robes, painted with the humiliating sign of servitude. She keeps looking at her trying to communicate with her eyes, but she doesn't understand what Daisy says or what's happening.

Then suddenly she hears a voice inside head penetrating the silence. "Fitz was Jemma's…. well they were in love."

Anger wells up in her. Fitz again, with the past tense. " _My future with Jemma is dead_." he said and he was right in a way, but all for the wrong reasons.

"Calm down and focus" she hears and she realizes that the voice is not Fitz's, but the inhuman's. _A mind-reading power – fascinating._

"Not fascinating, focus." Fitz's voice snaps her back into the present and she lets her mind meld with Ben's as she tries to follow Daisy's story about their abduction.

* * *

"You're attorney is here."

Fitz looks around confused. He has never asked for an attorney. He is guilty after all – he wanted to face the consequences and the punishment – for Mace, for Agnes, for Talbot…

When he sees Hunter in the doorway, he is sure that he has lost his mind finally. But then he hears his voice and the military guards remove his cuffs and leave the room. He steps closer and they hug, Fitz clinging to his friend, who is there flesh and blood. He feels like laughing and crying, because he doesn't deserve it, but Hunter is here – waltzing into the prison to save him with an undoubtedly insane plan that most likely will get both of them killed. Fitz doesn't care – he is insanely grateful and feels less alone.

"It's so good to see you." Hunter's voice finally penetrates his prison of silence. His mind emerges from the fog. _Just follow my lead – we'll find them._ – the Doctor nods determined.

* * *

Jemma more feels than sees the commotion. There is a change in the drift of the air. She feels the slight tremors and knows that Daisy is fighting; maybe for her life, maybe to be sold off like Abby. In any case, it is Jemma's fault again. Another inhuman to add to the list of the ones she failed.

" _I still hear their screams." Fitz said to her_. She wanted to shake him and tell him that the screams torturing her are not digital characters, but the real inhumans Lash killed when she foolishly let him out. They are the voices of the ones she failed to save; Donnie, Vijay, Abby.

She doesn't want to see Daisy fight, but at the same time, she finds herself gravitating towards the arena.

She looks around the room and sees silent chaos – inhumans and Kree colliding violently. The smashed chairs, broken glass, colliding fists surely make a deafening noise, but none of it penetrates her wall of silence. It's like watching a silent movie.

She sees Daisy in the middle, sending a Kree guard flying into the wall. May is there too, leaning on her injured leg. Her movements look choppy. For a moment, her eyes are fixated on a figure clad in leather and a red bandana – his face covered by a mask. Her heart quickens for a moment, because he is the right height and his posture looks strangely familiar, but then she sees him deal a brutal blow on one of the servant's head that has rushed to Kasius' aid. The servant collapses, than the man in the mask freezes for a moment as he stares in her direction.

 _Do something, don't just stand around when your friends are fighting for their lives –_ Jemma admonishes herself. She sees Sinara attacking May, who seems to be in a precarious position. Jemma grabs the heavy water pitcher and knocks it against Sinara's head as hard as she can. The Kree loses her balance from the blow, which allows May to get up and kick her hard. Sinara falls off the balcony, straight down to the floor of the arena, where the inhumans surround her.

Jemma sees one of the Kree with a grenade-like object and she tries to scream, but is not sure if she's making any sound. Suddenly, she is pushed down to the ground and as she looks up, the man in the mask is lying on top of her, shielding her from the blast. She sees his hands, feels the way his body curls around hers and her heart dances with joy then bile rises in her throat in panic, because his body is motionless. She slides out from under the man and rolls him over gently. She finds the button behind the mask and pops it open. She removes it carefully and there he is – Fitz all pale and motionless, eyes closed. She leans closer and puts her fingers on his neck searching for a sign of life. She sighs with relief as she detects a faint pulse with the tip of her fingers.

She runs her hand around his body, feeling for broken bones, but luckily all seems intact. The blast just knocked him out probably. _It's all too incredible – he has found a way, again._ She taps his face gently, and slowly his eyes open trying to focus. When he sees her leaning over him, she sees relief in his eyes. She smiles at him.

"Jemma." he says sitting up, and though she cannot hear him with her ears, his hot breath resonates in the centre of her being. She throws her arms around him and they hold each other tight for a moment and in that moment nothing else exists – no time, space, future or past – just them, together. When they break the embrace, he looks at her with a question in his eyes.

"I can't hear you – Kasius implanted something in my ears." she explains calmly.

Fitz looks at her in alarm for a moment. Then he takes a deep breath and says "It's OK. We'll fix it. Together." She has not been able to read anyone's lips, but he knows exactly what he says. He breaks through her silent isolation and she knows that together with him, she can face whatever may come.

She looks in his bottomless blue eyes and nods "I know." Then she turns back to towards the room, where the tide of the fight has turned against the Kree.


End file.
